All tagged Things I have learned

I know I’ve said this before but it’s relevant at New Year’s: the odd years are growth years and the even years are catch-up years (according to my therapist), and if that’s the case (2023 = odd number) we’re heading into a growth year. I eagerly dread the push of growth (Jackson was born in an odd year; Jack died in an odd year), but the optimist in me knows you can’t grow stronger or build new muscle without getting sore, so really it’s a good kind of sore, maybe? Ugh, brace yourselves. We’re at the edge of this cliff and old man 2022 is putting his shoulder into our backs.

I guess by now it’s clear that if I don’t post for five months it’s because I have been head-down-and-go on yet another “final” draft of this novel I’ve been working on. I still can’t write “my novel” without wincing internally—I can’t claim ownership of the thing that contains every ounce of my inner life for the last seven years. Who would put all their spiritual eggs in one basket like that? Just who do I think I am?

The lead-up to Christmas this year was really fun. Nature wasn’t trying to murder us (compared to last year, when we had the Thomas Fire crawling up our butts and then the mud literally killing people), and we had enough money to throw around on superfluous things like fire wood and snacks, so we loaded up.

The other day one of my coworkers asked me if I knew anything about probiotics. I told her that I knew just about everything I wanted to know about them, fearing that I was going to be led into another conversation about fecal transplants and/or my most hated and feared food, sauerkraut. Instead…